Black Tiles and Silence: Going Digital. Voices from a Further Adult Vocational Education (FAVE) Interdisciplinary Community of Practice (CoP)

Context: Since March 2020 and the global pandemic, our ‘new normal’ is comprised of emerging COVID-19 variants, intermittent national lockdowns, restricted social interactions, and a continuation of remote online teaching and working from home. FAVE professionals have engaged with digital technologies, and related pedagogies and practices, in response to the need to deliver of their programmes through Emergency Remote Online (ERO) teaching.   

Approach: This qualitative case study examined the perspectives of an online Community of Practice comprised of eight FAVE educators. The study took a methodological approach where each participant served as a case, representing a unique aspect of the ‘remote’ digital educator experience.  

Findings: The experience of creating and sustaining ERO teaching as described by the participant-researchers is both challenging and rewarding. Findings establish the importance of developing an educator digital mindset that is proactive, rather than reactive; and characterised by particular behaviours and attitudes that are agile, collaborative, curious, and “tech savvy”. Finally, relational learning and the importance of a supportive online CoP can be useful not only to FAVE teachers and trainers, but also to other educational and training organisations promoting remote and online digital teaching and collaborations.  

Conclusions: Challenges to developing an educator digital mindset and an identity as a digital practitioner arose from unexpected and difficult ‘online’ workplace relationships and demands, in addition to the unexpected impacts on boundary management between work-life and home-life.  When the unexamined assumptions and frames of reference were brought into question, they resulted in disorienting dilemmas. The online supportive CoP relationships provided a safe space where critical reflection and dialogue could occur. Current understandings of the influence of ERO teaching on practitioner engagement with digital technologies, provide a contextualized understanding of how to support and facilitate the creation and development of these educator digital mindsets.  

This research has implications for developing digital teaching-learning environments (dTLEs) in FAVE programmes. Further research is required to provide a deeper understanding of how FAVE educators engage with digital technologies and develop an educator digital mindset.